Please stop asking me if my opponent is a good sport or not.

For the record, none of the opponents in the many games I have played on this site has ever been a bad sport.  Sometimes I click the thumbs up when I'm in a good mood.  I would never in any event click the thumbs down because 1) I'm a fairly stoic fellow, and 2) as a retired litigator of among other things, several hundred divorces, I can be a big league flaming asshole in real life when provoked myself.  Are we being ranked on this somehow?  Do we now have a hidden thumbs rating as well as a chess rating?  Does it cost my innocent opponent anything if I failed to thumbs up because I got up to make another espresso?  What, exactly, is the purpose of this "feature" 

For example, people with a high % of thumbs down during the last 90 days can be put in a pool where they only play each other.

For someone who says he's so stoic, you seem to be bothered by this an awful lot. Just ignore it and move on to the next game. I can't imagine anyone ridiculous enough to click thumbs up or down on every single opponent they play (but now that I say that I guess they're out there).

What's next? A like button.

Here's my alternative proposal, a snippet of code attached optionally to a user's account that would thumbs up every single opponent automatically.  I'm willing to be the test case for this.  You're all good doggies.    

I sense a lot of anger here.

No anger, just the curiosity and distrust that comes from opaque judgments about my sportsmanship, and I have the right to query the credentials of my judges, I am, after all, a retired judge myself. Can you imagine being judged as prejudiced against one country or another because you thumbed up country A, but after you blew your game against country B, you had to go poopy or something so you didn't thumb him up in time?  WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS of this invisible (to the users) "feature"?   Can I see a tally of how many thumbs up and down I have?  Am I going to be judged on my popularity like they do now in China?  Please thumb me up at every opportunity, like Tinkerbell, I might cease to exist if you stopped believing in me.  

I already explained a likely use of it.

Maybe you didn't understand because IT WASN'T IN ALL CAPS?

Haha well said OregonP

You did a terrific job of explaining an opaque surveillance "feature".  My question remains standing, of what benefit is this to me?  If I give you thumbs down, will Amazon deliver me chocolate ice cream in a drone?

Policies, like law, aren't made with the expectation that they'll benefit each individual. It's always the case that they'll benefit a large majority of people a large majority of the time.

By banishing abusers to a separate pool (if that's what they're using it for) most people are benefited by playing less abusers. You shouldn't be worried about it.

Although judging from your posts here, never mind, you should be worried about this feature  Most of us shouldn't worry though.

Well then, I'll have to apologize to the Lithuanian who beat me for not thumbing him up because I had to go poopy.  I also apologize to the Polack I beat for not thumbing him up because a woman came over to my house, sat in my lap and put her tongue in my ear.  I apologize to the Chinese fellow I beat and failed to thumb up because my broker had just informed me of major losses on the bourse.  Is chess.com keeping a record of our thumbs up and down, because if so, we have a right to see it.  

Dear op (works at multiple levels here given the username) ,  the bunny theorises that this is just chess.com subliminally pushing it's closely guarded agenda that chess is a sport,  and not just a game. 

There may be laws and regional restrictions against international thumbing. 

Besides you don't want to know where that golden thumb has been

real chess players smoked cigars and drank Guinness while playing. now it’s sweetie fags, Ribena and plonk.

Like I said, I don't think thumbs up matter much.

And like the bunny said,  depends where the thumb has been. 

That may be true in Singapore.  In the USA, we have a constitutional right to thumb anyway we want.  My opinion doesn't count on the question of whether or not chess is a sport.  

"Do you expect me to give you a thumbs up?"

"No Mr Bond, I expect you to have a hernia"

[dramatic music swells]